Around 10:30 a.m. on December 20, 2010 three school buses from North Asheboro Middle School in Randolph County, NC were involved in a wreck in Cary, NC that sent 38 students to hospitals in the Research Triangle area.

The school buses were transporting students to Raleigh to visit the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences for a field trip.

The driver of one of the buses briefly looked down after hearing a buzzer, which often signals a mechanical malfunction on a school bus. When the bus driver looked up, it was too late; his school bus collided with the school bus in front of his, which hit the school bus in front of it. The driver in the first bus has been cited with failure to reduce speed.

North Asheboro Middle School officials sent any students that complained of any degree of pain to hospitals as a precaution, but the injuries are being described as “minor.” According to an article on myfox8.com, injuries include cut lips, sore shoulders and neck pain.

The students were taken to WakeMed in Raleigh, WakeMed in Cary, WakeMed in Apex or Rex UNC Health Care. Most were released to their parents on Monday, but five remained in hospital care overnight, according to an article on wral.com.